What would you do if your child's voice, calling out to you, woke you up in the morning and you went into his/ her room in response to the call only to reach and find out that he/she is not there to begin with? Read through this amazing story to find out what this mother did.
PS: I must say that for a child as young as the one mentioned herein, she was a smart one!
My Child, My Teacher
There are moments in books and movies when a small gesture reveals a profound insight about a character. They might decide to go barefoot, or refuse to board a bus, or turn their face upward to taste the rain. After consuming enough literature and films, we learn that these moments matter and that the author is helping to reveal a character’s deepest self with these gestures. Recently, I was reminded that those moments aren’t limited to fiction, nor to adults. My 1-year old daughter Ayla taught me that lesson last week when I found her asleep in the bathtub. Let me explain.
Since Ayla is now sleeping in her own (door-less) room, she is prone to wake up in the wee hours and wander around the apartment or into my bed. Last week, Ayla woke up and stumbled into the bathroom. I’m not sure exactly what transpired but my best guess is that she accidentally closed the bathroom door and couldn’t reach the handle. She was stuck.
While most babies would scream out in her situation—knowing that their light-sleeping parents would quickly come to the rescue—Ayla stayed put. She didn’t cry or scream out. Instead, she navigated around the bathroom by the dim glow of the night-light. She gathered a few towels. She found a pair of my leggings. Then she got into the tub and somehow fashioned a small bed out of them. Finally, she put herself to sleep.
She had just turned one—only a few days before this happened.
The next morning, unable to get out of her tiny bed, she called out to me and I came running into her room. When I didn’t find her there, my heart started pounding, loud and fierce.
